MARK OF JOHN HUNT OF PRESTON, FOR EDWARD BARNARD AND SONS LIMITED, LONDON, 1923, 18 CARAT, DESIGNED BY REGINALD J. DAY

The Barnes gold communion service is a extraordinary statement of love for a departed wife. Made from gold from the Mysore mines in India, the gold value alone in 1923 would have been almost £2,000, sixteen years wages for a skilled craftsman of time. It follows in the tradition of Pugin and Burgess using Gothic forms for inspiration.

The service is accompanied by a hand illustrated book by C. W. Norris, illuminator, London, describing all aspects of the set, with colour plates with gold leaf highlights. 'The service consists of four vessels wrought in gold from the Mysore Mine in India and each vessel bears the following inscription, 'To The Glory of God and in Loving Memory of Annie Wife of John Barnes, 2nd September 1922'.

The book continues, 'The vessels are completely hand wrought, embody the work of the finest craftsmen, and are conceived and executed in the spirit of the best examples of Gothic Ecclesiastical Vessels of the late XVth and early XVIth centuries.' The newspaper report in The Lancashire Daily Post, op. cit., records that the model for the chalice was the Leominster chalice originally from the church of St. James, Berwick St. James, Wiltshire, is now in the British Museum.